Roundup
The best dartboards for kids
Four boards children can play safely, sorted by age — plus the mounting height that makes darts work for a shorter player.
By Ryder M. · Last updated October 6, 2026 · How we pick
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The short answer: for children, buy a soft-tip electronic board. The plastic tips cannot embed in a wall, a door or a person, and the automatic scoring removes the arithmetic that otherwise ends the game in the first week. A full-size soft-tip board is the better buy than a children's one, because adults will play it too — and a board adults play is a board that is still on the wall in three years.
Darts is the best-value game in a family game room: a fraction of the cost of any table, no floor space, and the only game where a beginner and a good player can genuinely compete. With children there are two real questions — safety, and whether they can reach the board properly. Both have clear answers.
Sizing
Which board for which age
| Age | Board type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under 6 | Magnetic or velcro target | No point, no tip, no risk; it is a throwing game rather than darts |
| 6-8 | Soft-tip electronic, lowered | Safe tips, automatic scoring, and a board hung lower so they can aim |
| 8-12 | Soft-tip electronic, full size | Game variety and scoring; a board adults will also use |
| 12-15 | Soft-tip league-standard | Statistics and handicapping for a player who has started to care |
| 15+ supervised | Bristle with steel tips | The real game, with the skills that transfer to a pub or a league |
Ages are a guide to reach and judgement, not a rule. Steel tips in a house with younger siblings are a decision about the household, not about the oldest child.
Quick picks
Tap any row to jump to the full write-up.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Best overall for kids Viper 777 Electronic Dartboard A soft-tip electronic board that scores for them and cannot embed in a wall. | Children roughly eight and up | $68.43$88.9923% offView on Amazon |
| 2 |  Best for a family that plays together Viper 800 Electronic Dartboard A larger soft-tip board that adults will also want to play. | Mixed-age households, children ten and up | $79.99$157.9949% offView on Amazon |
| 3 |  Best for serious young players Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 Electronic Dartboard A soft-tip board with league-standard scoring and segment quality. | Teenagers who have got good and want to keep improving | $249.99$289.9914% offView on Amazon |
| 4 |  Best soft-tip darts for children Viper Sinister Soft Tip Darts Lighter barrels and replaceable tips — the fix for a board's bundled set. | Any electronic board a child is using | $73.99View on Amazon |
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1. Best overall for kids
Viper 777 Electronic Dartboard
Viper (GLD Products)
Two things stop children playing darts: the darts themselves and the arithmetic. A soft-tip electronic board removes both. The tips are plastic and will not stick in plasterboard, a door or a foot, and the board does the scoring — which matters more than it sounds, because a nine-year-old subtracting three-digit numbers under pressure stops enjoying the game very quickly.
The 777 has the game variety that keeps a child interested past the first week. Cricket, around-the-clock and the simpler counting games give them something to practise rather than just throwing at a number, and the automatic scoring means they can play alone.
Plastic segments do produce bounce-outs where a steel tip would stick, and that is the honest trade. It is also the reason this board is safe: nothing that bounces out of a plastic board is going to do any harm.
What we like
- Soft tips cannot embed in walls, doors or people
- Automatic scoring removes the arithmetic barrier
- Enough game variety to hold interest for months
- Plays solo, which children do more than adults expect
Worth knowing
- Plastic segments bounce out more than bristle
- Needs batteries or a mains adapter
- Electronic scoring is the component that eventually fails
Who it’s wrong for
A teenager who wants to play the real game on a real board. Steel tip on bristle is the next step — see bristle vs electronic.
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2. Best for a family that plays together
Viper 800 Electronic Dartboard
Viper (GLD Products)
The problem with buying a children's dartboard is that it stops being played the moment the child stops being a child. A full-size soft-tip board with a proper game list avoids that: a ten-year-old can play it now, and the adults in the house will use it too, which is the main reason any game in a family room survives.
The 800 has a larger segmented surface and a longer game list than the 777, including team games that let four people play in rotation. For a family room that is the feature that matters, because darts is at its best as a group game rather than a solo one.
It still scores automatically, which is the thing that keeps the game moving when the players range from eight to forty-eight.
What we like
- Full-size soft-tip surface adults will also use
- Long game list including team formats
- Automatic scoring keeps mixed-age games moving
- Safe for a room children use unsupervised
Worth knowing
- Costs more than a children's board
- Bounce-outs on the plastic segments
- Needs a power source near the mounting point
Who it’s wrong for
A household where an adult plays steel tip seriously. They will want bristle, and a second board is a lot of wall.
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3. Best for serious young players
Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 Electronic Dartboard
Arachnid
There is a point where a child who plays a lot outgrows a toy board but is still better served by soft tip than steel — usually around twelve to fifteen, in a house where the board hangs somewhere other than a dedicated games room. This is the board for that stage.
Arachnid build the scoring and the segment pattern to the standard used in soft-tip leagues, which means handicapping, proper cricket scoring and statistics that let a player see whether they are improving. For a teenager who has started to care, that feedback is the thing that keeps them playing.
It is also the point at which it is worth buying decent soft-tip darts rather than using the bundled set. The bundled darts are the weakest part of every electronic board at every price.
What we like
- League-standard scoring, handicapping and statistics
- Better segment quality, so fewer bounce-outs
- Grows with a player who is genuinely improving
- Robust enough for daily throwing
Worth knowing
- Most expensive board here
- Overkill for a casual player
- Bundled darts need replacing to do it justice
Who it’s wrong for
A younger child who just wants to throw at a target. The extra scoring features will go unused — see best dartboards for beginners.
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4. Best soft-tip darts for children
Viper Sinister Soft Tip Darts
Viper (GLD Products)
Every electronic board arrives with darts, and they are always the cheapest component in the package. For a child that matters more than it does for an adult, because a badly balanced dart lands sideways and a sideways dart bounces out — and a child who bounces out six throws in a row concludes that they cannot play darts.
A proper soft-tip set has a lighter, better-balanced barrel and tips that screw in, so a broken tip costs pennies rather than ending the dart. Broken tips are the single most common consumable in soft-tip darts, especially with children, so replaceability is not a luxury.
Buy a spare pack of tips at the same time. It is the difference between a board that gets played all winter and a board with three usable darts by February.
What we like
- Lighter barrels suited to a child's throw
- Screw-in replaceable tips
- Far better balance than any bundled set
- Cheap enough to buy two sets for a family
Worth knowing
- Soft tips only — will not work on bristle
- Tips break regularly and need replacing
- Flights are basic and will need replacing too
Who it’s wrong for
A bristle board, which needs steel tips. Those are a different purchase entirely — see best steel tip darts.
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Mounting height
How high should a dartboard be for a child?
The official height is 5ft 8in (68in / 1.73m) from the floor to the centre of the bullseye, with the throw line 7ft 9.25in (93.25in / 2.37m) away measured horizontally. Those figures come from the WDF and PDC rules and they are what every competitive board in the world is set to.
For a child, that height puts the bullseye above their eye line, which means they are throwing upward and cannot see the board properly. The practical answer for a child under about ten is to hang the board lower — roughly at their own eye level — and shorten the throw line proportionally, keeping the ratio of about 1.37 to 1 between the distance and the bull height. A child who can see the board throws at it; a child who cannot, throws at the wall above it.
Move it to the official height once they are tall enough, which is usually around eleven or twelve. Our dartboard height and distance guide has the full figures, including the separate soft-tip throw distance.
The real risks
Safety, honestly
- Steel tips are the actual hazard, not the board. A steel-tip dart is a weighted spike. In a house with younger children, soft tip is not a compromise — it is the correct choice.
- Bounce-outs travel. A dart that bounces off a board can go several feet. Keep the throwing lane clear and keep seating out of the firing line, not just out of the way.
- Walls and doors suffer. A surround ring protects the plaster around a bristle board; a soft-tip board needs nothing because plastic tips do not penetrate.
- Never retrieve darts while someone is throwing. The one rule worth drilling into children, and the one adults break.
- Store the darts out of reach. Not because children cannot be trusted with them, but because younger siblings cannot.
- Lighting matters for safety as well as scoring. A board in a shadow gets thrown at optimistically.
Not worth it
What to avoid
- Steel-tip boards for under-twelves in a shared room. The board is fine; the darts are the problem, and they do not stay where you put them.
- Cheap paper-wound boards. They do not self-heal, they shed, and they look worn out within a month.
- Boards with printed-on scoring but no electronics. The arithmetic was the barrier; printing numbers bigger does not remove it.
- Velcro and magnetic sets for children over about seven. They see through them, and the throwing feel is nothing like darts.
- Bundled dart sets as a replacement purchase. It is the same low-grade darts again. Buy a proper soft-tip set instead.
Questions
Common questions
What is the best dartboard for kids?
How high should a dartboard be for a child?
At what age can a child play darts?
Are electronic dartboards safe for children?
Do kids need different darts?
Sources
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